#AtoZChallenge : J is for Jane Eyre #CharlotteBronte

In my youth I was enthralled by Jane Eyre and when I read it as an adult, I appreciated its quality and why this classic story still speaks to us today.  Jane, who speaks to us in the first person, is an independent woman, despite her vulnerable position.  Published in 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell, this could be seen as a feminist manifesto. Jane is mistreated and abused, first by her aunt and then at Lowood Institution. She enters Thornfield Hall as a plain, poor governess calling Mr Rochester her Master, in all its connotations.  Finally, after running away from Thornfield in despair, she reaches Moor House where she flourishes and has the confidence to spurn the offer of marriage from St John Rivers, because she already knows the only love and passion in her life. This book has everything; social comment, Gothic horror, pathos and self-knowledge. As Jane says,

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustainable I am, the more I will respect myself.”